General
Way to work your business, go you girl! Thanks for thinking of me, however I have a philosophy not to be a rep for any one brand. There are 4 reasons for this.
1) I want to remain as unbiased as possible, both for myself but also for appearance sake. If I’m saying this certain brand’s product is amazing, I want people to know without a shadow of a doubt that I mean it and that I’m not just saying that because I sell the products. (People with platforms like me get criticized for that sort of thing a lot and it discounts what they say to many people.) I don’t want to be discounted because of a potential conflict of interest.
2) I want to be able to compare and speak freely and honestly about various brands without people just assuming its false and bashing a competitor company. If I were to be a doTERRA rep for instance and say I honestly didn’t trust Young Living…people are just going to assume I’m only saying that because I sell doTERRA. If I had no skin in the game, however, and I say that…people can’t just negate what I’m claiming by justifying it with that conflict of interest. They’d have to actually wrestle with the facts given, and that’s what I want!
3) My goal is to try as many different brands and products as possible so I can have a lot of options to help people find what works for them. Everyone’s budgets, skin needs, preferences, ingredient restrictions etc are so different that one brand won’t fit all those needs. If I was a rep, I wouldn’t have much motivation or ability to try as many brands as I’m able to now. It really only makes sense financially, if you’re going to be buying a product your company sells to buy theirs so you can invest in your business and let others try it…I make it a goal to try a new brand every time I buy a product.
4) Most mlm’s have rules and restrictions on repping other brands while repping theirs. Not to mention non mlm brands typically are less likely to work with reps who are already pretty “brand loyal” which also limits greatly how many different products and brands I get to try. Make sense? So, thanks but no thanks!
Good question! Affiliate links are a partnership with a company and similar to a mlm rep’s link…just allows someone to shop through to that company’s site and I would receive a small commission off them using my link instead of just going directly to that company’s website. (The commission is typically much smaller then mlm’s, but still a commission nonetheless) If I have an affiliate link it always means:
1) I have thoroughly vetted the company and it meets the Clean Living Mom Criteria
2) I’ve already tried multiple products from them and honestly LOVED them and know I would be recommending them anyway (or in some cases I’ve been recommending them already for a while!) Because companies don’t have rules with how many different companies i can be an affiliate with, it eliminates some of the conflict of interest. There’s no tiered commision as an affiliate, no downline you can create, and no pressure to “sell” a certain amount…if no one uses that link all year, nothing happens. Plus I love becoming affiliates with companies because it almost always means free giveaways for you guys that I just host, and discount codes all year round! I do recommend brands often that I have no affiliation with (or get nothing from) because my goal at the end of the day is to help find something that works best for you! I have more info addressing this question on my Affiliate Disclosures Page as well. In the end…I do have to make some money somewhere lol to keep justifying all the time I put into this blog, so in my mind…an affiliate link has less conflicts of interest then being an mlm rep.
It’s a mixture. Most of the time when we run out of a product, I try to buy a brand/product I haven’t tried yet so I can have even more products to give detailed product reviews on or recommend to people, etc. I also do receive a good amount of free products from companies to try and review, but I always disclose that on each individual blog post. I’m honestly thankful whenever I get free products from companies because I probably wouldn’t have the resources to try out all those products otherwise…or it would just take a while. As I’ve stated in several other places though, I always seek to be honest, not let that sway my opinions, and I have no problems with saying I dislike a product!
First off, any brand I promote on here, meets this standard! If you’ve been following me for any length of time, you know that I have very high standards! I don’t just read labels…not even close! There’s so much more than mere ingredients that go into what makes something safe for human health! If something meets my criteria, you can be sure that I fully trust the company as a whole to:
-be putting health and safety before anything else
-stay educated and up to date on current scientific or medical literature on what ingredients are safe, what’s harmful and WHY, and chose ingredients accordingly
-not fear monger or greenwash
-work closely with their suppliers, manufacturers, and formula developers to ensure purity and the highest quality possible
-third party test their ingredients or products to ensure purity
-follow and exceed all FDA, LFGB/EU, and IFRA standards
just to name a few.
I’d love to discuss what that might look like! Feel free to reach out to me via my email cleanlivingmomblog@gmail.com